People who do well are afraid of the government, the media, and bitter people all around. They are afraid they will be hunted down by organizations who will tie you up and burn you at the stake. You don’t know how many conversations I’ve had with people who are just so agitated they can’t spend 1/10th their income on a car because that would mean they’d be spending $50,000-$150,000, which is fancy by “normal” standards but is absolutely whatever by their standards! Instead, they spend 1/20th to 1/50th of their income on a car because anything more than a $28,000 Honda Accord will be frowned upon.
But cutting costs only goes so far. Unless you already make a lot of money and spend like a bon vivant, most people can’t eke out that much more from their budget by decreasing expenses. Plus, the more you retrench, the more your quality of life suffers. (It’s all relative, though — certainly some overspenders could actually improve their lives by tempering their expenditures. Here are 101 ideas for saving money.)

Using the money you already have to make more money is usually a pretty smart move. A service like Lending Club is a great way to act as a lender and earn interest on your money. Essentially, you act as the bank, which is pretty neat. Lending Club is the world’s largest online credit marketplace connecting borrowers and investors. Definitely something worth looking into!

If you’ve received gifts you really don’t want – and they’re still in the packages – try returning them. Some retailers will take them back up to a year later. If you are not sure where the item was purchased, try going online and searching. If a retailer like Walmart or Target pops up then you can return it there without a receipt and get a gift card.
“The process is pretty straightforward: You fill out a questionnaire (either online or over the phone since sometimes they call you if they need to fill open slots) and if you qualify for the taste test you simply pick one of the available time slots,” Chelsea says. “You never know which fast food/restaurant you’re going to be tasting until you arrive and begin the taste test.”
You can sell your ebooks through Amazon's Kindle program or Apple's iTunes Connect, which gives you access to a large majority of the digital-book reading market and the barriers for entry are incredibly low. You don't need to invest lots of money to make this happen, but you do need to invest lots of time, not only in writing the ebooks, but in marketing them as well.
Shopify is another great option if you are wanting to create your own eCommerce store. Shopify is arguably easier to set up than WooCommerce but will give you less control over your storefront and cost you more long term. However, if you have little to no experience of creating websites or using WordPress, or you are working to a very tight time schedule, then Shopify may be the perfect eCommerce platform for you.
Open an Etsy store. If you have a creative talent or skill – whether it’s creating art, sewing clothes, or making keepsakes – you can open an online store on Etsy.com and sell your wares for some quick cash. With your own Etsy store, you’re left in charge of pricing and, ultimately, how much you make. See our detailed primer, “How to Make Money on Etsy.”
Running a coupons website can be very lucrative. Find a coupon niche, select a WordPress coupon theme, and then display relevant coupons on your site. When your audience uses the coupon codes or discount links, you will earn an affiliate cut for example you could set-up a site dedicated to iHerb Coupons or add a page to your website with Web Hosting Promo Codes. Coupon websites are quite high maintenance as they need to be constantly updated with new offers. However, if you build up an engaged audience and allow them to post coupons and discounts they have found themselves, then quite quickly your workload will reduce.
Just the other day, I got a ride home from a tennis buddy who works at a hedge fund. He drives a common Ford Explorer and on our way back we started talking about real estate. He mentioned he and his wife are looking for a new house having recently relocated from Florida. He mentioned his house in Florida costs just under a million, but is nicer than so many $3-4 million dollar houses in San Francisco. So then I suggested instead of spending $3-4 million on a house in San Francisco to perhaps rent for a while.
Invest in a company. Consider whether you want to invest in a private or public company. Decide whether you want to invest in a start-up company or a more stable and established company. Earnings are lower in large companies but it is much easier to invest and is less risky. Consider your age and whether you have enough time to wait for your investment to show a profit before you turn 20.
If this is the first time you are hearing about this, though, then we actually do not recommend trying it. The average skill level of players on the Internet has improved so much over the past few years that it’s virtually guaranteed that a new player will lose money over the medium to long-term. But hey, Ben made upwards of 6 figures playing online in poker in college, so we had to list it. 🙂

I used to have fun doing surveys while I watched TV. I was choosy about the companies I used and I never paid to sign up for any. I got about $25 in free BlockBuster movie coupons, cashed out about $25 from another site and did an in house project trial where a company sent me to full size body lotions to use and record information about. I had fun, felt like my input was improving the business world, but I wasn’t looking to get rich quick, just earn a little bit in time that typically wasted. Some survey companies pay very little, others pay better. Of course, it is not fair to the businesses conducting the research to lie in order to qualify for a survey and they certainly deserve honest and thoughtful answers to their questions. The companies I worked with told me how much the survey would pay and how long it would it would take. Research for the reputable companies.

Fiverr is one of the biggest providers in the gig economy on the web and you can sell a wide variety of services and products through this medium. Do the research and find out what you can offer. However, keep in mind that like any other money-making task, it takes time to succeed here. And stellar reviews will help you generate more and more income over time.
According to a joint study of U.S. tax return data by the Treasury Department, Williams College and Indiana University, about 60 percent of the top one-tenth of one percent of income earners are executives, managers, supervisors and financial professionals. That, of course, includes equity-based compensation. If you’ve got the ability and the drive, climbing the corporate ladder pays off big-time. Again, it did for me.
If you are particularly good at somethings, say map design, capable of creating a series of video lessons, you can become a tutor at SkillShare. You’ll be in good company with folks like Seth Godin and James Franco among others. SkillShare tutorials and 30 days teaching challenge will help you create a winning video tutorial. Your earnings will depend on the popularity of your course, but even low attendance will let you earn some decent money.
Get samples. When you first start out as a freelance writer, it can be hard to get work without any published samples. However, it is possible to get quality samples if you are willing to do some writing for free. First, you can publish content on your own blog or website. Also, you can write guest posts for someone else’s blog. Finally, you can write blog posts for free in exchange for a byline.[20]
I suspect there’s a lot of selection bias in those numbers, ie who are you/Bloomberg asking (or who is willing to divulge what they make)? For example, Google/Facebook. Yes, some engineers at those companies are most certainly making 6-figure salaries, but the majority of those companies are not engineers and are definitely not making anywhere near that. As far as the millions in stock, that’s a total pipe dream. Sure, a few of the lucky (and super talented) engineers that got in on the ground floor may have a hefty amount of options, but the vast majority likely have much more modest amounts. Don’t get me wrong, they are both great companies to work for (I have had the opportunity to work for both at one time or another), but they’re not the millionaire-makers everyone paints them to be. :)
Leapforce is always looking for people for this work at home role. Their Search Engine Evaluators “conduct research, evaluation, and feedback on search engine results by measuring the relevance and usefulness of web pages in correlation to predefined queries, by providing a comparative analysis of sets of search engine results and various other techniques.”
If you are good at writing notes and attended all lectures, you can sell your asserts to less committed students via NoteSale. You can create a listing for free, but the site will take a per cent from each of your sales. Typed notes in PDF/Text format sell best, yet it’s worth trying with scanned handwritten notes too if you have nice clear writing.
Ever since the tech bubble downturn in 2000 there’s been a secret movement to hide one’s wealth and be more understated. I call it the Stealth Wealth Movement. So many people killed it during the dotcom boom that they have no choice but to hide their wealth because the media went on and on about how so many people lost so much money. It’s just not true, speaking from experience and the experience of others.

It’s so hard for me to see that people can make money. I’ve made low wages my entire life, and all my friends are dirt-poor too. Most of my friends work retail (I’m going back to school now for a degree in Accounting, and working freelance doing graphic design) and most of us barely make enough money to even survive with the most basic of things like food and rent.

Once you have that problem or need nailed, the next step is to validate that idea and make sure you’ve actually got customers who will pay for it. This means building a minimum viable product, getting objective feedback from real customers, incorporating updates, testing the market for demand, and getting pricing feedback to ensure there’s enough of a margin between your costs and what consumers are willing to pay.

Manage social media for businesses. If you have a knack for social media, you could potentially get paid to manage various platforms for others. Many businesses are too busy running day-to-day operations to stay on top of their Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts – and will pay someone with the knowledge and time to do it for them. To find these jobs, ask local businesses and check sites like UpWork.com and Problogger.net.
If you are good at writing notes and attended all lectures, you can sell your asserts to less committed students via NoteSale. You can create a listing for free, but the site will take a per cent from each of your sales. Typed notes in PDF/Text format sell best, yet it’s worth trying with scanned handwritten notes too if you have nice clear writing.
If you have experience with marketing, SEO, or a knack for getting people excited about the products and services you use on a regular basis, think about refining your skills and putting them to work making money online as a small business marketing consultant in your region—especially if you can become a local SEO expert and can help local clients rank higher in their search results.
I used to have fun doing surveys while I watched TV. I was choosy about the companies I used and I never paid to sign up for any. I got about $25 in free BlockBuster movie coupons, cashed out about $25 from another site and did an in house project trial where a company sent me to full size body lotions to use and record information about. I had fun, felt like my input was improving the business world, but I wasn’t looking to get rich quick, just earn a little bit in time that typically wasted. Some survey companies pay very little, others pay better. Of course, it is not fair to the businesses conducting the research to lie in order to qualify for a survey and they certainly deserve honest and thoughtful answers to their questions. The companies I worked with told me how much the survey would pay and how long it would it would take. Research for the reputable companies.

Focus on the surveys and offers at the top of the list. Here's a tip not many people know. CashCrate has a special algorithm that automatically selects the best surveys and offers and places them at the top of the list. There are several factors that go into determining which are the “best”, including payout, approval rate, and a variety of other factors. But all you need to know is that these surveys and offers are great, so you can do them in confidence!